1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer utilized by a computer such as a personal computer or a workstation, a document print system using the printer, and a document printing method using the printer and the document print system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional printer and print system, contents to be printed prepared by a computer are transferred to a printer, where the contents are printed. Thus, the principal objective of the conventional printer and print system resides in the act of printing itself.
In some printers and print systems, a document is stored in the printer, and the thus-stored document is re-used for re-printing or re-editing purposes. Here, the document comprises an arbitrary combination of characters, symbols, graphic and image.
In a conventional printer and print system, when the printer stores the document, the document is not stored in the form of a print command prepared by an individual computer and transmitted (hereinafter referred to also as a “PDL”) but is stored in the form of a dot image expanded in the printer (the dot image will hereinafter be simply referred to also as an “image”). Storage of a document in the form of a dot image provides superior performance in terms of re-printing but provides a lower degree of freedom in editing and causes deterioration of picture quality when the document is edited. More specifically, if the stored document is subjected to assembly editing or imposition, such as saddle stitching, Japanese-style binding, or perfect binding, or n-up which define disposing logical n sheets in a physical 1 sheet, the corresponding stored dot image is enlarged or reduced. If the dot image is enlarged or reduced by a factor of “x” (x-times or one over x, where “x” is not 1), the picture quality of the dot image is in principle deteriorated.
Further, in the conventional printer and print system, extraction of the document stored in the printer and editing of the document by means of an application program for editing (hereinafter referred to simply as an “application program”) are effected on the premise that a match exists between a document format required by the application program and the format of the stored document. Hence, if no match exists, the stored document cannot be edited by means of the application program. Such a match can be ensured when a single manufacturer offers a printer for storing documents and an application program or when the printer and the program are developed by a printer manufacturer in collaboration with an application program manufacturer. However, such a match cannot be ensured when a printer and an application program are developed independently of each other. In fact, in many cases, printer manufacturers and application program manufacturers develop their own products independently.